Kingston v Guildford, final of the Alexander Cup, played at the Peace Memorial Hall, Ashtead on 29 April 2025

From left: Ameet Ghasi, David Maycock, Vladimir Li, Luca Buanne, John Hawksworth, Peter Large, Michael Healey, Silverio Abasolo, Peter Lalić, Ash Stewart (photograph: John Foley)

The all-conquering Kingston team comfortably retained the Alexander Cup by winning the final at Ashtead against Guildford. The Alexander Cup is the 10-board Surrey teams open knockout championship. In reaching the final, Kingston defeated Streatham in the quarter-final 6.5-3.5 and Epsom in the semi-final 8.5-1.5 and so were odds-on favourites. However, Guildford should never be underestimated as they have a large pool of players to call upon and were the holders prior to the present Kingston run.

The Kingston team had a grandmaster on top board and an international master on bottom board. This team could acquit itself well in any English team event, including the 4NCL where several of these players are active in the first division.

The match was played at Ashtead as a neutral venue. We are grateful to Bertie Barlow and Ashtead Chess Club for facilitating the event. To add to the drama, Kingston was also playing another final in the same venue – the Lauder Trophy, which is the ratings-limited six-board Surrey team knockout tournament. We had got through to both finals. A report on the Lauder Trophy is published separately. John Foley was captain of the Alexander Cup team and Stephen Moss captain of the Lauder Trophy team. Graham Alcock, the Surrey inter-club tournament director, also attended and made the presentations to the winners.

Considerable effort went into the logistics of the event. Each player’s travel arrangements were checked and double-checked. There is little that can be done about a seven-car pile-up on the A3, so some of us arrived only just in time for the 7.40pm start. Kingston took our own chess equipment (thanks to Stephen Moss) so as not to impose on Ashtead. We were joined by two supporters – David Rowson, captain of Kingston’s Thames Valley first team, who would normally be playing, and Robert Waller, whose playing days are behind him but who enjoys attending matches. It was the hottest day of the year so far and temperatures were in the mid-20Cs. We picked up packs of bottled water from the local Co-op.

The room got warmer as the evening progressed and the tension mounted. Kingston never looked in trouble from the moment of the first point – a quick win on board 9 by Luca Buanne, who could then switch to doing his homework.

Kingston obtained seven wins and two draws. In this match report we look at three games. We hope to publish some of the remaining games in our Games section. The most spectacular game which caught the attention of those present was between Silverio Abasolo and James Toon. As one spectator asked Alan Scrimgour, “How can Silverio have nearly all his pieces under attack?” to which the reply was “Well, his opponent can only take one piece at a time!”

Board 7

In Silverio’s game, each side landed blows on the other and we could not guess what was going to happen. The outcome of Peter Lalić’s game was unpredictable because it depended upon whether he had enough compensation for his Smith-Morra gambit. He gave up one pawn, another pawn and then the exchange. However, Peter was thinking at a deeper level than the spectators, and eventually his strategy of tight control proved victorious.

Board 5

Board 3

Meanwhile on Board 3, there was no uncertainty. Peter Large dispatched Nigel Povah efficiently with a neat queen sacrifice.

Kingston v Coulsdon, final of the Lauder Trophy, played at the Peace Memorial Hall, Ashtead on 29 April 2025

Photograph above: The Kingston team ahead of the Lauder final: (from back left) Moss, Kerremans, Bickerstaff, Eckert, Andrews, Scrimgour (Photograph: John Foley)

The Lauder Trophy is a mathematical puzzle: you need six players and have a maximum of 10,500 rating points to play with. How to slice the cake – three 2000-strength stars and three under-1500s, or six middle-ranking players? It’s a conundrum.

As Lauder Trophy captain, I didn’t really feel I’d cracked it ahead of this final. I was only using 10,342 rating points for the team, which is criminal really. A key player rated around 1900 had dropped out with illness a few days ahead of the match and I’d stepped in with my anaemic grade of 1750. I felt we were underdogs and had resigned myself to likely defeat against a Coulsdon side that I knew would allocate their points with discrimination.

The only consolation was that we were playing the Alexander Cup final at Ashtead on the same night and, since we had managed to put together a tremendous team, I was reasonably confident we would win it for the fourth year in a row. The Lauder, though, was in the lap of the gods, and my expectations were low.

Alan Scrimgour, with White, and Ian Calvert – both very solid and experienced players –quickly agreed a draw on board 2. That could have been predicted. Peter Andrews was Black and outrated by almost a hundred points on board 1 – that would be tough. I also feared the worst on board 4. where David Bickerstaff was Black against a junior, Arnav Jayaprakash. David was sitting next to me and from an early stage I disliked the cramped nature of his position.

I knew we would have chances on board 6 – Robin Kerremans hadn’t played a classical game for a year, but I felt his rating of 1250 was lower than his true strength (underrated players are gold-dust in the Lauder). But the match, I believed, would be decided by Jon Eckert’s game on board 4 and mine on 5. Fortunately, Jon had had an excellent win the previous night and was in good fettle, and for once I felt reasonably focused (having White was a bonus).

My game was next to finish after the board 2 draw. The course of the game was decided by a decision I made on move 14. My opponent had played a French Defence, but castled queenside – a choice that invariably makes for an exciting game as White attacks on the queenside and Black does the same on the kingside. We pick up the game as I make my defining decision.

We were 1.5-0.5 up and went further ahead when Robin Kerremans won on board 6. White is already much better in the position below, but Black lashes out with 25…f5 and and his position quickly falls apart.

2.5-0.5 to Kingston, but now came the reverses. David Bickerstaff’s game was another French in which he castled queenside, and once again White’s queenside attack was faster than Black’s putative kingside assault. David was already under the cosh in the ugly position below, but then made what he considers a key error:

“Overall quite an uncomfortable game.” was David’s summing up afterwards. “The computer agrees with my general analysis during the game that his queenside pawn storm was not a threat without his pieces also supporting and so could be ignored. In that respect I handled it well. My pieces, though, were quite uncoordinated and threats of back-rank mate with my king on a8 and white pawn on a6 made it difficult to find an advantage. Trading off some additional pieces earlier and finding more space would have helped improve my position.”

Coulsdon were now only down by 2.5-1.5, and the scores were soon level when Timur Kuzhelev got the better of Peter Andrews on board 1. Peter had been a little behind after shedding a pawn in the opening, but fought tenaciously and felt he had a drawing chance in the position below.

With the scores tied on 2.5 all, it was now down to Jon Eckert on board 3 with Black against Coulsdon captain Matt Darville, who outrated Jon by 80 points. I couldn’t bear to watch, knowing that even a drawn game and a tied match would give the title to Coulsdon on board count.

Jon, though, was not going to let it slip. He played well in a French Advance and always stood slightly better, with two bishops against two knights. But time was becoming an issue and the last position we can conclusively establish before the players stopped recording under the five-minute rule is this one, where Jon has a pawn on the second rank protected by his light-squared bishop.

This is winning for Black – not because the c-pawn will get home, but because while White has to spend time neutralising it with his rook, knight and king, the Black rook and king will mop up enough white pawns to create a winning advantage. The pawn on d4 is likely to fall to the marauding Black rook and, once the white knight is exchanged – necessary to take Black’s c-pawn – the Black king will penetrate on the kingside.

Matt battled on, but it would have taken a time-induced blunder – always possible of course – to rescue him, and Jon was not in the mood to make one. Black eventually forced victory, giving Kingston both the match and the Lauder crown (for the second year in succession) by 3.5-2.5. A great triumph for an outrated team, but also a considerable personal success for Jon Eckert in a high-pressure, must-win game.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain and Lauder Trophy captain

Hounslow B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 28 April 2025

This was not a match I expected Kingston B to win. We were away, outrated, and perhaps distracted by the fact we had two big finals the following evening. But in reality the team stepped up brilliantly and won 4-2 to keep us on top of the Thames Valley division 2 table.

I had a dull draw on board 4 against capable junior Vibhush Pusapadi; Homayoon Froogh had a rather more exciting and higher-class draw with Sesh Vaddadi on board 2; Peter Andrews had what he described as a “stress-free” win in a rook and pawn endgame against the very solid Mateusz Dydak on board 1; David Shalom outmanoeuvred Hounslow veteran Leon Fincham to register an important win on board 5; and Genc Tasbasi lost on time (in a lost position) against the wily Frank Zurstiege on board 6.

Game of the night was Jon Eckert (White) against Hounslow captain David White (Black) on board 3. John played the Grand Prix Attack against David’s Sicilian, leading to this position after 13 moves:

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Wimbledon A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Winefride’s Church Hall, Wimbledon on 17 April 2025

Our penultimate Thames Valley League division 1 match of the season found us away to Wimbledon, playing in the kindergarten surroundings of St Winefride’s Church Hall. On arrival I showed the Wimbledon captain, Ian Heppell, our team’s line-up, and he commented drily, “You didn’t need to bring such a strong team.” This was because Wimbledon were missing all their top players and the rating differences between the two teams made the contest look as if it would be a huge mismatch. Little did either Ian or I suspect how the evening would go.

The first game to finish was my own, a damp squib on my part. I had White and the positional advantage I thought I might have achieved from my Italian Game, intangible at best, was easily annulled by Stephen Carpenter, who was probably a little better in the position where we agreed a draw (White to play):

On board 2 Luca Buanne had White against Marcus Baker, and Luca’s Ruy Lopez was challenged by Marcus with the Marshall Attack, gambiting a pawn. In this standard position Luca opted for an unusual continuation:

Thus Kingston were a game down, with the position on board 6 also starting to look ominous for us. As Stephen Moss commented pessimistically on the club WhatsApp group, “The unfolding drama … Nightmare at the Nursery.” Fortunately, soon afterwards Peter Large struck back on top board.

Peter, with White against Neil Cannon, began with the Trompowsky Attack, but was critical afterwards of the way both players handled this tricky opening. This was the position after 11…0-0:

Kingstonian relief at levelling the match score was short-lived as Will Taylor lost soon afterwards on board 6 against Georgi Velikov. Will’s ambitious queenside play from the Black side of a Ruy Lopez had led to his losing a pawn, and then, in a difficult position, the exchange. In time trouble Will continued to fight, but his opponent played accurately and forced resignation when threatening unavoidable mate. So the score was 2.5-1.5 to Wimbledon with boards 2 and 4 still in play. It seemed that the Kingston players were slightly better in both games, but neither was completely clear. Were we about to lose our proud 100% TVL division 1 record?

The board 4 game between Wimbledon’s Gordon Rennie, with White, and Kingston’s John Hawksworth had opened with a Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation, leading to a position with contrasting pawn structures:

This result levelled the score at 2.5-2.5. As has often happened this season, Peter Lalić’s game, playing Black against Wimbledon newcomer Stephen McLoughlin, was the last to finish and the one which would decide the match. The game started as an Albin Counter-Gambit, but multiple exchanges led to a position in which Black’s queen and knight were superior to White’s queen and bishop, especially as the dark-squared bishop was handicapped by pawns on the same colour. Here White made a mistake which led to the loss of a pawn: 

Over the next 20 moves or so, with both players in time trouble (although quite possibly Peter doesn’t see playing on the increment as time trouble), Peter manoeuvred to get his pawns on to white squares, safe from the bishop. He was then helped by Stephen McLoughlin’s moving his queen away from his king’s defence, so that when this position was reached he had to go in for an unfavourable exchange of queens in order to save his f-pawn:

Kingston had thus won the match by the narrowest margin, 3.5-2.5, and great credit must go to the Wimbledon players for giving us such a scare. This was our closest match result so far this season, of which only one contest remains, against Ealing on 12 May. Can we finish with a 100% winning record?

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston A v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 14 April 2025

We confirmed our retention of the Thames Valley League division 1 title in mid-March with three matches still to play; paradoxically, could it be said that we had won the league too soon? What I’m trying to say is, how would the team find the motivation to win the remaining three “dead rubber” matches?

Fortunately, chess is only partially a team game. Even when people are members of a team, they are still playing as individuals, keen to get a result in every game for their own satisfaction, as well as for their club. This was demonstrated in our home match against Surbiton. Lacking several of their top players, our opponents still put up a fight, but in the end the rating differences and the determination of the Kingston players told.

On board 1 Kingston’s Julian Way was representing Surbiton. An early error by Julian in the English Opening led to David Maycock winning the exchange and getting a grip on the position which was hard to shake. The two players castled on opposite sides and David’s attack crashed through quite quickly.

The results on boards 5 and 6 (two draws) were disappointing for Peter Andrews (playing Black) and myself (White), given our advantages in rating and on the boards themselves, though we should acknowledge that our opponents didn’t make it easy for us. The outcome of Peter’s game against David Cole was especially frustrating for him, as he discovered afterwards that in the final position he was actually clearly winning:

Peter explained: “With time starting to press, I saw some imaginary demons. The main problem was that after 17… Nxd4 18. Bxd4 Bxd4 19. Rxd4 I had intended 19…Qax4. But then 20. Rxd8+ Kxd8 21. Qxb7 is uncomfortable with my king exposed. I had thought when I played c5 that 21….Qa1+ would win the rook on h1, but now noticed that it was still defended by the queen on b7. 17…Bd5 is good, forcing e4. Now my calculations muddled whether or not White still had the d4 pawn, in which case Bc6 could be met by d5. And I had to take into account whether g5, opening the line of the bishop on h3 against the black queen, could upset things. In fact, the d4 pawn has long gone, and 18. e4 can be met by 18…Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Bxe4 (I missed this trick) 20. Qxe4 Bxd4 and Black is two pawns up with a strong grip. 20. Bxg7 is no good after 20…Bxf3 21. Rxd7 Rxd7, threatening mate on d1, so after 22. O-O Rb8 Black is the exchange and two pawns up.”

With White against Alexey Markov on board 6, I won a pawn early on almost by accident, but then failed to find the right way to exploit this. It’s probably not a good idea to arrange your pawns in such a way that the extra one is backward on an open file, as in the position where we agreed a draw:

John Hawksworth’s opponent, Paul Durrant, played the Benoni Defence to John’s d4, but made a strategic error the move before the position below was reached. Here he has just moved 13…Rb8, which John countered with 14. Nb5! The point is that White is threatening both a7 and d6, so Black has to exchange knights, but after 14…Nxb5 15. axb5 White has a permanent bind on the queenside and the a7 pawn is weak.

Later, John used his pawn majority to break through in the centre, giving this position with White to play:

The board 2 game was atypical for Peter Lalić, playing with the white pieces against David Scott, as the queens remained in play until the end. It opened with the Caro-Kann Defence, against which Peter played the Panov Attack. In the following position Black already looks to be in difficulties due to his problems with development, the awkward situation of the bishop on e6 and the weakness of the b6 square.

With Kingston already 4-1 ahead, the last game to finish was the board 3 contest between Ash Stewart and Surbiton captain Graham Alcock, which began as an unusual kind of Closed Sicilian Defence, with White’s king’s bishop developed to c4 but his central pawns cautiously held back. This resulted in a slow positional battle. Ash advanced on the queenside, but Graham managed to post his bishop on b5 and in the following position he could have cemented it there with the move 25. c4.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley division 1

CSC/KIngston’s first team record a remarkable victory over the formidable Sharks 1 and the second team win both their matches to give themselves a shot at promotion on a riveting fourth weekend at 4NCL

In the late afternoon on Saturday 5 April, something remarkable happened: CSC/Kingston 1, new to division 1 this season and among the favourites to be relegated, beat Sharks 1, who for the past few seasons have been vying to win the 4NCL title. It was a remarkable victory and a mighty tribute to captain Kate Cooke and her vibrant and youthful team (members of which are seen in the photograph above playing late-night blitz after their triumph). This is the scorecard of the success:

Vlad Larkin and Ulysse Bottazzi overcame significant rating disadvantages to draw on the top two boards; David Maycock (who spurned a draw offer) and Zain Patel lost with Black on boards 4 and 8; but we were carried over the line by wins from Roland Bezuidenhout (against grandmaster Daniel Fernandez!), Supratit Banerjee, Peter Finn and German WFM Luisa Bashylina, who enjoyed a fantastic debut weekend for the team winning both her games.

On the following day, the first team lost 5-3 (nothing to do with the late-night blitz, honestly) to a strong Chessable White Rose 1 team (see scorecard below), but even that was a close-run thing. Vlad Larkin felt he had a winning chance against top GM Gawain Jones, but it came close to the first time control when he had only seconds to calculate. Peter Finn also had excellent drawing chances against Harry Li, but blundered in the endgame.

There was, however, no crying over opportunities lost. Overall, this was a great weekend which gives CSC/Kingston 1 a good chance of surviving in the division 1 sharkpool. The final weekend, in Daventry on 3/4/5 May, promises to be fascinating one, with make-or-break matches against Cheddleton, Barbican and Sharks 2.

The weekend after CSC/Kingston 1’s great achievement, it was CSC/Kingston 2’s turn to trek to Peterborough for rounds 7 and 8 of division 3 (knights). The team won convincingly by 4.5-1.5 against Celtic Tigers 2 on Saturday (see scorecard below), but had a scare against Sussex Martlets 2 on Sunday, coming back from 2-1 down to win a nailbiter. Clive Frostick, who had been unwell coming into the weekend, heroically secured a crucial draw in the final game to finish to take the team to victory. Props also to Tom Ferrand and Chris Fegan for winning both their games over the weekend.

CSC/Kingston 2 now have a chance of winning promotion to division 2 on the concluding three-match weekend in Daventry on 3/4/5 May (when division 1 and division 3 knights will be played at the same venue, allowing the first and second teams to play alongside each other). The round 11 match against promotion rivals To Be Decided on the last day of the competition is likely to be decisive (as the name of our rivals, currently ahead of us in the table by a single game point, handily suggests).

CSC/Kingston 3, who head to Coventry for the final weekend on 3/4/5 May, also had a productive weekend, beating Ashfield 2 on Saturday before losing a hard-fought match to Apprentice Woodpushers on Sunday to leave them eighth in the table. Promotion is still possible, but they would have to win all three of their matches on the final weekend and others results would also have to go their way.

Here are the tables as they currently stand for the divisions in which the three CSC/Kingston teams play:

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 2 v Surbiton 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 April 2025

Surbiton 1 brought a surprisingly weak team to the Willoughby for this Surrey division 2 match against Kingston 2, and were duly despatched 6-1. Both teams are safe in this division, so perhaps their attention was elsewhere. They defaulted on board 3 and had a very young junior on board 7 who did not last long against Homayoon Froogh, so were 2-0 down very early on and never thereafter looked like mounting a challenge.

Will Taylor, with Black, and Surbiton captain David Scott had a hard-fought draw on board 1, and Surbiton’s Alexey Markov secured an excellent draw with Black against Alan Scrimgour on board 4. “I made a couple of inaccurate moves early on in the c3 Sicilian that I have been playing for decades,” Alan said afterwards. “This allowed my opponent to initiate a series of exchanges leaving the position completely level.”

That was as good as it got for Surbiton. John Foley (pictured above, head in hands) showed his usual masterly control in beating Graham Alcock, securing a small advantage in the middlegame and remorselessly hammering it home in the endgame, and Alicia Mason got the better of Paul McCauley’s Sicilian on board 6. Paul had a slight edge in the opening, but made an error in the middle game that cost him a bishop and, hard though he tried, could never claw his way back, with Alicia forcing resignation with a tactic that won more material

Peter Andrews, whose board 3 opponent defaulted, hailed John Bussmann’s board 5 win over John Rennocks as the game of the match, and we have chosen to analyse his fine victory, which contains a very nice sacrificial idea, in depth in the Games section.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain